I went to the Friday night game. My second trip to the Shake Shack in Queens. Really like the ballpark and as a Mets fan I picked the right game of the series to attend (both starting pitchers with a hit, and prompted me to learn it was Pettitte's eighth hit in pinstripes). And it was better than my first trip to the new park, when Luis Castillo disappeared from the game - as I learned post-game driving down the BQE listening to WFAN - because he slipped down the dugout steps. That one also included two Pujols home runs (including a 10th inning grand slam) and a K-Rod blown save.

Back to the recent visit ... with all they do for the in-game experience and to pump up the crowd as they turn up the volume, I was disappointed by the lack of timely replays to see the details that were missed from the upper deck. Seemed like a crowd control decision - much like the FIFA qualifiers.

We just moved from Cincinnati to Boston, and while loving Boston, we miss walking down to the park in downtown Cincy for $10 seats with a view of the Ohio River into the bargain. That kind of price also makes it possible to enjoy baseball on a night when you maybe have only 2 hours to spend instead of 3.5. You can have a hot dog, watch the game, and leave in the 5th or 6th inning without feeling guilty about wasting, well, $110.

By the way, Mr. Vecsey, a few years ago you described Over the Rhine as the northern outpost of Appalachia, and you got that phrase right.

Fritz, the answer to your prayers is minor league baseball. Don't know the specifics around Boston, but it can't be too far. I get my own stadium kicks these days from the New Britain, CT Rock Cats. Great food, nice people, spotless stadium (someone last year commented at the food stand, "you can eat off this counter," and I looked down at my feet and added, "or the floor"). There are a lot of Polish people (literally, from Poland) from the community who work there and can't stop cleaning everything, similar to your Red Legs experience. $8.

John, I walked right past your neighborhood to the SF park last WS.
I keep reading about this recession but the 1 per cent can afford $110 for a ball game. GV

George, Unfortunately, the cost is why I have not been to a ballgame in the seven years I've been back in New York. Hard to explain to my wife why I should spend $100 on an athletic event instead of what she wants to do. By the way, what happened to that baseball park you attended last year and the year before, Strawberry Fields?

Good for you. It can be done. The Mets have a sliding scale, much higher for Yankees. My son takes his two daughters to New Shea, scores tickets on Ebay or whatever for $7-9 (maybe not this year with the Mets doing well) and the moves down to the food court in deep RF, where there is a decent view.. He says there is a nice fish sandwich for reasonable price -- I used to pack PBJ for the kids back in the day, much to their chagrin. It can be done. I love the idea of mass transit -- took the Long Island RR to the game the other night. Keep the faith for patronizing reasonable prices. GV

George


It seems as if I’m on your GPS radar. I opened the Mets-Yankee game topic while passing Avenue I on the F train on the way to the Brooklyn Cyclone’s game with my family. Except for the $12 ticket, everything about this Class A baseball game was Major League including the noise, food prices and the inability to talk to anyone near you.


The next time I logged on was while crossing the other great Roebling bridge from Brooklyn in order to have Dim Sum in Chinatown and dessert in Little Italy with my family. Collectively, the cost for the six of us was less than your $100 ticket. If we made it a totally ethnic experience and included deli on Delancy Street, it still would have been less.


I’m not one to champion that all things were better in the past, but going to baseball games as a kid is one of them. I grew up in the 1940’s on 190th Street and Fort Washington Avenue in Washington Heights. From the age of ten, my friends and I would go to Giant or Yankee games by ourselves. Grandstand seats in the third deck of Yankee Stadium were $1.25 and the field perspective from that height was terrific. You could determine whether hits would drop or not before they touched the ground, which was difficult when sitting lower down.


There was a continual friendly dialog with the fans in the section regardless of their loyalties.


We often would do a day-night Yankee-Giant double header by walking across the 155th bridge for the Giant’s night game.


Although I was a Yankee fan, I loved going to the quirky Polo Grounds. During lulls in games, you could look over the wall and watch the West Indians play cricket. There were too many odd plays at the Polo Grounds to recall here.


Thanks for reviving so many memories of a time when baseball was a game for the fans.

To answer my own question, according to the numbers crunchers (web site Deadspin), everyone who subscribes to a cable TV service in NY, NJ and CT paid to the Yankees YES Network last year, on average, $33.60, whether or not they watched a single game.

The only way to really know what each player has done is by keeping score, which I have done religiously since 1945. It was one of the first things I thought my kids when we started goIng to games. They still do it. It would be a meaningful addition to the fancy score boards to see a score card of the game.

I bring my own pencil.

When I was a teenager in the 80s, I could sit in the outfield bleachers at shea, take the subway up and back from the ballpark, and maybe have a cole and some popcorn for like $20. Now I live in California and go to Angels games, and when I took my niece to a game a few weeks ago, the whole thing - food, gas, tickets - was $300. People scratch their heads and wonder why attendance is down 15% at the Big A this year, especially after signing Albert Pujols and CJ Wilson. I suspect its that something's gotta give and the only way a club can afford their payrolls is by charging fans so much. It seems like it's self-defeating. And, really, why would I wanna go to a game and pay good money to get bombarded with horrible noise between every pitch when I can watch the game at home in peaceful tranqulity. Baseball is supposed to be quiet and pastoral, not dumb and crude. Things have changed...

Readers will recognize that Bill Wakefield pitched very well for the 64 Mets. Larry Bearnarth used to play touch football with us Newsday guys in the fall when he wasn't sub-teaching. Great guy.
Bill, I started that day in Baltimore with the Yanks. Their charter dropped us at LaGuardia, my wife met me, we went to my family's house near Jamaica, and watched the last 9-10 innings on the tube with my dad and others. Casey tried to warm up you?> You should have gone in.Statute of limitations, or something. Great to hear from you. G

Once again, you're spot on. $110 for an outfield seat is outrageous. The noise and inane inter-inning video games or races are off-putting and distract from the game. Why anyone would want to go to a ball game and then spend 30-60 minutes walking to a food court, standing in line, waiting, and then walking back, I don't know.

As far as using mass transportation to reduce the cost, it works fine if you live in the City and can do it all by subway. George, you can use the LIRR and avoid the subway. I live in Westchester. Train to Grand Central and 7 train to New Shea is about $15-20 per person round trip plus another $5 plus to park at the station. A little less expensive for one person. For two or more, driving and paying tolls and for gas and parking is less expensive -- and much faster.

I used to have season plan tickets at Shea and looked forward to the new stadium. No more. I miss being at the game and the camaraderie that developed among the fans who were always in the same seats. Fortunately, the Mets have good broadcasters.

George, I'd bet it was well-spent money for the Met as well -- they're one of the best opera companies in the US.

Just for grins, I took a look at the prices to see an opera given at the Met:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203960804577241761512178068.html

and the price range this year runs from $20 each for the cheapest "Family Circle" ticket up as high as $460 each for the best Parterre seats. For the Mets:

http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/ticketing/dynamic_pricing.jsp?c_id=nym&layout=gameflow#date=06/29/2012

ticket prices range from $17 each on some nights for a "Promenade Outfield" seat up to as high as $315 each for "Metropolitan Box Platinum" seats. The cheapest tickets are about comparable, and the most expensive ticket at the opera costs $150 more than the highest-level seat at a Mets game.

The lesson here I'm thinking is that a night of premium-level entertainment is not cheap no matter what you choose.

And in 1970, gas cost 36 cents a gallon, you could buy a house for $25K, and a pair of warm and well-lined boots sold for $40. Everything just costs a lot more than it did 40+ years ago. If nobody else is willing to sell their product at 1970 prices, why should anyone expect a baseball franchise to be the exception?

Hi George, This is a late response as we have been on the road, and had limited or no connectivity. Saw the Friday game with son Bruce, a Brooklyn guy. We saw game 7 in 86 together, too and an occasion one since we move to Flori-duh. Bought seats in upper deck behind home plate, good view, $50 each, plus fees, taxes, etc. Still better than left field. One gripe, no escalator to third deck, lots of stairs and a small elevator with a crowd waiting. Customer friendly? Happily the Mets won, beating Petitte,, (no particular joy in that.) The week before I saw the Mets win in St. Pete, There the same seats, third deck behind home, went for $16 I think. Wish more fans were there. In Magog, east of Montreal, wish the Expos were still here. Happy 4th.

Tom, thanks, if they had American marketing geniuses, UK football fans would never have developed their a capella choruses. I'm planning on a Red Bulls game soon, as antidote to all those make-a-buck exhibitions. Best, GV

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